China, Japan and South Korea win their first gold medals at the Rio 2016 Olympics

Golds were won in the women's 10 metre shooting, the men's 400m swimming and the men's archery

China, Japan and South Korea have won their first gold medals at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Zhang Mengxue won the 10-metre shooting gold, Kosuke Hagino won the 400m swimming gold and Kim Woo-jin, Ku Bon-chan and Lee Seung-yun won the archery gold.

First-time Olympian Zhang Mengxue won China’s first gold medal by winning the women’s 10-metre air pistol shooting event on Sunday. The 25 year old won with a final score of 199.4 points in 20 shots, defeating Russia’s 19 year old Vitalina Batsarashikina who won the silver medal with a score of 197.1

Zhang joint the Chinese olympic team two years ago.

“I was pretty calm for the final actually, because the qualification was a bit tough for me,” said Zhang.

On Saturday, Kasouke Hagino won the men’s 400-meter individual medley, giving Japan its first gold medal. The 21 year old won with a time of 4 minutes and 6.05 seconds, whilst his rival and two time world champion Daiya Seto, finished third with a time of 4:09.71.

“I swam for my coach [Norimasa] Hirai, so I could hang my gold medal around his neck,” Hagino said. “Kalisz made me nervous in the last 50 meters. I’m glad I could still win this tight race.”

Trio Kim Woo-jin, Ku Bon-chan and Lee Seung-yun achieved a 6-0 win, defeating the United States who ended the South Koreans’ run of three titles in the London semi-finals. Kim also managed to score a 72-arrow world record,

“I’ve been waiting for this moment, to get gold, for four years… We trusted each other, and it happened. It just happened.”

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Cohan has written for online publications including the Huffington Post, Gigwise, Time Out Singapore, The Metropolist, Zoo, We Plug Good Music and Redstar Qingdao. He has developed an insight into the East Asian community in the UK from his work at the British Chinese Project, an NGO that promotes political participation for the Chinese in the UK.